David Saffir had the good fortune to receive one of the first HP Designjet Z3100 printers early in November. Although HP considers this a test unit, he found that it performs quite well as a day-to-day production unit.
This is a robust, top-quality, pro-level printer. HP has learned well from its experiences with its new photographic-quality printers in the last couple of years, and the company has really listened to photographers in designing and building this machine. Print quality is excellent on a variety of media; he've had an opportunity to test photographic-quality glossy, satin, canvas, and fine art/rag media thus far.
Paper handling with sheet-fed and roll media is very good, the user interface (hardware and software) is clear and user-friendly, and print quality in color and black and white is excellent. Time will tell, but his initial experience indicates that the printer will improve my productivity and cost less to operate than older technology.
A Brief Description
• Available in 24- and 44-inch-wide versions.
• Uses 12 pigment-based inks (includes quad blacks, gloss enhancer, dedicated red, green and blue cartridges, etc.); HP also offers an 8-ink version in the Z series, called the Z2100.
• Uses a built-in spectrophotometer for creating custom ICC paper profiles using a wide range of media (Eye-One technology from GretagMacbeth).
• Ships with preset media profiles you can use right away, or uses custom profiles created via the on-board spectrophotometer.
• Prints black-and-white images on matte and art papers without expensive ink purging and recharging.
• Accepts roll and sheet media, including a variety of photographic inkjet, fine art, canvas and others; HP indicates it will provide up to 35 different media types for this printer.
• Provides up to 200-year print life (see Wilhelm Research data).
Basic Printer Calibration
This function drives the printer to produce a color-standardized (linearization) target and then measure it. This process is pretty much a two- or three-mouse-click exercise: You choose the calibration run, choose your paper, click OK, and the printer does the rest of the work.
This is a very valuable function. Any printer, regardless of manufacturer, will drift slightly in color-the cause may be something as simple as installing a new roll of paper, or increased environmental humidity. This helps to return the printer to a standardized condition, sometimes called a "known state."
Display Calibration
The software also provides a display-calibration routine. You'll need a display calibration device to use it. As we all know by now, a calibrated display helps greatly in getting your screen to match your final output.
Printing From Photoshop CS2
Printing from Photoshop is reasonably straightforward. From File > Print Preview, you'll see this screen. As you normally would if you are using ICC profiles, select Let Photoshop Manage Color, and select the profile for your media.
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